That's my daughter....in the water

 This weekend was a difficult one for me.  As I watched Danielle compete at the state swim meet, in this, her senior year of high school, I realized how much I will miss her when she goes to college next year.

When you look at this face, can you believe that she was the colicky baby who cried for hours and hours and months and months, and nigh on half a year....so much so even my mother couldn't get her to stop????

 Don't let this smiling face fool you; she can be as surly as the rest of them when the mood strikes, the moon is full, and it happens to be some random Tuesday.

Teenagers only pose for pictures like this so when we are old, we will have forgotten all of the meltdowns and fits that occurred in between photos.

Ahhh, she is just so sweet!!!






As most of you know, Danielle's passion is swimming.  As the song goes:

"That's my daughter in the water, everything she owns I bought her....

That's my daughter in the water, everything she knows I taught her....

That's my daughter in the water, every time she fell I caught her....

That's my daughter in the water, I lost every time I fought her...."

You'd lose too if you came up against that karate kick!

Watch out world!
And little brother!
And the dog (who often gets up on the tramp with us)!
And anyone else who gets in her way!








This is my girl, determined and competitive.

Little does the girl in the next lane know how serious Danielle's game face can be.  She is about to get her butt kicked in the next one minute and five seconds.

Her little brother knows that face well, for that look is often directed at him.  He could have warned the girl in purple what was about to happen.







The photo below sums up in one picture what I always wanted my daughter to be when she grew up. 

A strong confident young woman who is well on her way to taking on the world and becoming anything she wants to be.

Who is their right mind is going to mess
with those shoulders anyway????